Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1369939
7 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 MAY 2021 NEWS Bolt CEO fired over shareholder disagreements NICOLE MEILAK BOLT chief Sebastian Ripard has been fired from his role as CEO of TXF Tech – the com- pany that runs the taxi hailing and food delivery platform – following disagreements with company shareholders. Ripard remains a sharehold- er of TXF Tech through his half-ownership of Riscione H o l d i n g , one of the c o m p a n y ' s s h a r e h o l d - ers (5%); the others are Cyrus- based TXF G l o b a l (70%) and Debono Group (25%). He resigned as Bolt chief to- wards the end of March over disagreements with share- holders on the direction they wanted to take the company in. "One of the aspects I disa- greed with was the handling of the recruitment agency issue," Ripard told MaltaToday. His resignation from Bolt led to his removal as CEO of TXF Tech, whose sole director is now Klas Martin Johansson. Ripard set up a recruitment agency with Johansson shortly before his resignation – Cou- rier Superstarts – to employ third-country nationals direct- ly with the company. A Bolt spokesperson said Ripard's dis- missal was not related to the recruitment company he set up. Sources say Bolt has exclu- sivity agreements with two recruitment agencies for the provision of cab drivers and delivery workers, namely WT Global and RecruitGiant. A company spokesperson in- sisted Bolt remains compliant with Maltese labour laws with its recruitment pratcices. "The decision to work with exter- nal courier fleets was made to make our operations more ef- ficient and to provide a better service to our clients." MaltaToday revealed last Jan- uary that some recruitment agencies take a 50% cut from food couriers' earnings, as well charging thouands in to pro- spective employees. Screen- shots of conversations between one courier and a RecruitGiant official, as seen by MaltaToday, show couriers being asked to pay €1,000 into a UK compa- ny bank account, and another 25,000 Indian Rupees in a sep- arate account. Once the cou- rier's application is approved, they are expected to pay an- other €1,000. On visa approv- al, the courier pays €1,000 and another Inr16,000. In total, the prospective cou- rier pays €3,500 to secure a job as a food courier with Bolt, exlucing visa costs, single per- mit applications, and other bureaucratic procedures. The money is paid into a UK com- pany owned by Tomas Mikala- uskas, who owns RecruitGiant locally. This €3,500 fee is only avail- able to those who secure a job opportunity from RecruitGiant directly. Back in India, where there is no minimum or max- imum cap on recruitment fees, Indian partner agencies linked to RecruitGiant add a service charge, bringing up total costs to €5,000. nmeilak@mediatoday.com.mt Screenshots from mobile phone conversations between a prospective courier and a Malta recruitment agency Seb Ripard, former TXF Tech and Bolt chief, ha sset up a new recruitment agency